LinkedIn profile is an extremely valuable asset in your work portfolio. Unlike a resume that is limited by length, you can describe in more detail the project or work you did on your LinkedIn profile.
According to Workforce Report April 2020 of United States.
In the United States alone, there are…
- Over 167 million workers have LinkedIn profiles
- Over 20,000 companies use LinkedIn to recruit
- Over 3 million jobs are posted on LinkedIn in the U.S. every month
- and members can add over 35,000 skills to their profiles to showcase their professional brands. That gives us unique and valuable insight into U.S. workforce trends
Looking at the report and the data above, It doesn’t matter you are running a business or looking for jobs. LinkedIn is playing an important role in both business and professional career purpose. As recruiters are increasingly using LinkedIn to connect with candidates because the LinkedIn profile is more like a modern resume that highlights your career at a glance. Since more and more industry leaders are active contributors to the LinkedIn community, LinkedIn also provides you with the opportunity to create a personal brand, potential employers, and insights into industry trends.
What is LinkedIn?
LinkedIn is one of the world’s largest online professional social networking platform with over 700 million users. Users are coming from more than 200 countries and territories worldwide. Creating a LinkedIn account is more like creating a resume of your profile. With LinkedIn, it allows you to market you or your company over this professional networking platform.
How to stand out on LinkedIn
Profile Headline
Use an elevator pitch with a brief persuasive speech to hook attention that left other’s interest in what you or your organization does.
- Keep the summary short and sweet.
- Always use active language
- Include a call-to-action button is a plus to get people in touch with you.
- Headline should be keep in short and clean.
- Be sure only positive language in your headline
- The summary should be written in first person and stays professional throughout the entire narrative.
Profile Image
- Clear and high-quality profile photo with your face.
- Profile photo looks professional, cropped around the head and shoulders.
- Smiling confidently is the best, avoid weird face expression photo
- Background of the photo should be clean, no in appropriate items or environments.
- Don’t include other people in your profile image.
Project
- Showcase most relevant projects to the target job position.
- Never show more than 5 projects.
- Write an attractive project description with maximum of 3 bullet points per project.
- It would be a plus to add the link on your project URL. (e.g. GitHub, Video Walkthroughs, Presentation, etc..)
Experience
- Include the necessary details of your experience in the company/organization with job possition, location, the duration of your job with start and end date.
- In each of the experience listed, you should include the point what you did you do and how you helps the company.
- Avoid including volunteer experience in here, it should listed on volunteer experience section.
- Omits negative language (ie. part-time, volunteer, unpaid).
Education
- Complete education history, but avoid include common education like Kindergarten.
- Add description of what did you study and area of focus
Network
- Build at least 100 LinkedIn connections.
- Join several groups relevant to your goal, position, and/or industry.
- Avoid building connection with weird account. (Most Probably Spam)
Skills
- Include your professional and specialized technical skills (eg. JavaScript, Vue.js, etc..)
- Avoid include commonly used technologies (eg. Microsoft Word, Excel, Windows 10, Windows XP)
Others
- Set your profile to public
- Create a custom URL for your LinkedIn Profile.
- Ensure no spelling and grammar mistake on your LinkedIn Profile.
- Remove all negative language on your profile.
- The language in my LinkedIn profile is correct and consistent.
- Never Use negative/weird language and acronyms.
- For international, profile must be in English
- Includes links to personal website, GitHub, or other pages where employers can learn more about them and their work.
How To Marketing Your LinkedIn Profile
Having a great profile but have none visibility on LinkedIn is almost nothing. It’s important to put the LinkedIn activity features in good use. Here are some good features that you can boost your visibility.
- Follow the companies on LinkedIn in your target field to keep getting the latest updates, news, trends, events tips in your target professional field.
- Like and Comment on good articles you see them. Don’t be shy, It will helps to boost your visibility immediately to them.
- Post article relevant to your profession. Writing good article might also helps you boost your visibility. If your article is super great, it might open the possibility to get flood of comments and private message.
- Endorse and Recommend is one of the best way to get recognize from others. By endorsing and recommend current and former colleagues can show you are capable to work as a team and acknowledging your teammates.
- Join Groups
- Optimize your Profile with Keywords and SEO
- Build Connections
- Reaching Out on LinkedIn